Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 821 - 3.6. RELAYING

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### 3.6. RELAYING

The forward-path may be a source route of the form "@ONE,@TWO:JOE@THREE", where ONE, TWO, and THREE are hosts. This form is used to emphasize the distinction between an address and a route. The mailbox is an absolute address, and the route is information about how to get there. The two concepts should not be confused.

Conceptually the elements of the forward-path are moved to the reverse-path as the message is relayed from one server-SMTP to another. The reverse-path is a reverse source route, (i.e., a source route from the current location of the message to the originator of the message). When a server-SMTP deletes its identifier from the forward-path and inserts it into the reverse-path, it must use the name it is known by in the environment it is sending into, not the environment the mail came from, in case the server-SMTP is known by different names in different environments.

If when the message arrives at an SMTP the first element of the forward-path is not the identifier of that SMTP the element is not deleted from the forward-path and is used to determine the next SMTP to send the message to. In any case, the SMTP adds its own identifier to the reverse-path.

Using source routing the receiver-SMTP receives mail to be relayed to another server-SMTP The receiver-SMTP may accept or reject the task of relaying the mail in the same way it accepts or rejects mail for a local user. The receiver-SMTP transforms the command arguments by moving its own identifier from the forward-path to the beginning of the reverse-path. The receiver-SMTP then becomes a sender-SMTP, establishes a transmission channel to the next SMTP in the forward-path, and sends it the mail.

The first host in the reverse-path should be the host sending the SMTP commands, and the first host in the forward-path should be the host receiving the SMTP commands.

Notice that the forward-path and reverse-path appear in the SMTP commands and replies, but not necessarily in the message. That is, there is no need for these paths and especially this syntax to appear in the "To:" , "From:", "CC:", etc. fields of the message header.

If a server-SMTP has accepted the task of relaying the mail and later finds that the forward-path is incorrect or that the mail cannot be delivered for whatever reason, then it must construct an "undeliverable mail" notification message and send it to the originator of the undeliverable mail (as indicated by the reverse-path).

This notification message must be from the server-SMTP at this host. Of course, server-SMTPs should not send notification messages about problems with notification messages. One way to prevent loops in error reporting is to specify a null reverse-path in the MAIL command of a notification message. When such a message is relayed it is permissible to leave the reverse-path null. A MAIL command with a null reverse-path appears as follows:

             MAIL FROM:<>

An undeliverable mail notification message is shown in example 7. This notification is in response to a message originated by JOE at HOSTW and sent via HOSTX to HOSTY with instructions to relay it on to HOSTZ. What we see in the example is the transaction between HOSTY and HOSTX, which is the first step in the return of the notification message.

                Example Undeliverable Mail Notification Message

             S: MAIL FROM:<>
             R: 250 ok
             S: RCPT TO:<@HOSTX.ARPA:JOE@HOSTW.ARPA>
             R: 250 ok
             S: DATA
             R: 354 send the mail data, end with .
             S: Date: 23 Oct 81 11:22:33
             S: From: SMTP@HOSTY.ARPA
             S: To: JOE@HOSTW.ARPA
             S: Subject: Mail System Problem
             S:
             S:   Sorry JOE, your message to SAM@HOSTZ.ARPA lost.
             S:   HOSTZ.ARPA said this:
             S:    "550 No Such User"
             S: .
             R: 250 ok

                                   Example 7

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RFC 821 - 3.6. RELAYING